Team Augmentation for an Android Version of a Desktop Video Conferencing App

Customer

The Customer is a North American IT product company with offices in the US and Canada. Their product comprises a flexible server solution and client software (a JavaScript-based application that runs in desktop browsers) for organizing high-quality, stable video conferences.

Challenge

The Customer’s product was geared to desktop devices, but they also wanted to make their product available on mobile. As most of their in-house developers were involved in the implementation of server and client software, the Customer needed additional mobile competencies yet wasn’t sure they could guarantee a stable and long-term flow of tasks in case of in-house hiring. The Customer’s key priority was to ensure the successful release and adoption of the desktop solution first.

Solution

The Customer contacted ScienceSoft and requested mobile team augmentation services. They needed an experienced developer who was well-versed in Android development in Kotlin and would be available for the next 4-5 months.

ScienceSoft provided a few CVs with the fitting profiles and, after the Customer chose the candidates, arranged the interviews. As a result, one of ScienceSoft’s most mature mobile developers was hired for the project and joined the Customer’s in-house team of five software engineers, two testing specialists, and two project managers.

The Customer promoted anti-micromanagement culture and had very flexible processes for the mobile app implementation. Still, they had weekly meetings with the stakeholders and used Jira and Slack for task reporting.

Since the mobile part of the project didn’t have any hard deadlines, the speed of progress mainly depended on the developer’s sense of responsibility and level of skills. During just four months, ScienceSoft’s Android developer implemented a mobile app that provided all the key video-conferencing features of the existing desktop software, such as:

• Real-time video streaming.
• Real-time audio streaming.
• Real-time messaging.
• Security protocols.
• Data sharing (e.g., shared screens and virtual whiteboards).

Results

After 4 months of cooperation, the Customer said that ScienceSoft’s developer had done a fantastic job and that they were absolutely happy with the progress in building the Android version of their client app. They are now focusing on releasing their core solution, but once they turn to the mobile applications, they plan to contact ScienceSoft again.

Technologies and Tools

Kotlin, Android Studio, Android SDK, Jira, Slack.